How To Give The Perfect Christmas Present To Someone You Love

Christmas is a time of gratitude. We all know that. Christmas eve, and the next morning for you Americans, are the time of the year to give presents to those you love. Family, friends and girlfriends.

We all love that feeling you get when you give someone something special that they really appreciate. You can see their happiness all over their face, and actually many people like giving more than receiving.

So let’s look at how to give the perfect Christmas present:

First of all, you must take a close look to the person you are giving the gift to. As lightly stated above, these usually fall between 3 categories: Family, friends and girlfriends.

So since it’s one of these 3, I bet that you know the person pretty well. You know his/hers interests, hobbies and you know what they want and need.

Now you could fall into the trap of giving the person exactly what they need, but that might not always be of your best interest.

I usually categorize gifts into 3 categories:

I need that

I want that

I love that

Of course there are also I hate that gifts, and a lot of other negative gifts, but because I’m such a positive person, I’ll only look on how to give a good present.

By giving a gift, you want to show that you appreciate the receiver’s existence in your life. You want to be remembered for that gift. And you want to make the person happy. That’s the end goal.

The special formula

The perfect gift is a gift that incorporates all the 3 categories. If someone needs something, the value of the item will always be of higher value to that someone. If they want it, the perceived value of the item will also sky-rocket. This is common sense, if you’re really thirsty, you are always ready to pay 10x more for water than if you weren’t.

And if they love it, you have the perfect gift. Giving someone something that they just “need” will often be boring. Giving something that they just “want” can be a good idea, but the gift will most likely not be used for it’s purpose very often. Like giving a BMW to a 15 year old. Sure, he’ll want it, but it won’t make the best present.

Being remembered

You might be remembered for giving a spoon that they need, but surely it will be way more appreciated if you engrave something in it, if you have made it yourself, or if there in some other way is a story attached to it.

The story

When giving a gift, I think that the story around it is very important. You can actually give someone a spoon that cost you 1$, and if you tell its story right, they’ll appreciate it 10 times more than the shoes they got that cost 100$, with no story attached whatsoever. You have to tell the story really good, though.

An example of a great spoon story:

(When handing the present over, or written on a card) “This was the spoon that James bond used in his latest movie. By coincidence I was right at the set that day, and suddenly I saw Pierce Brosnan jumping out in the daylight in his tuxedo, only with this spoon in his hands. He screamed at me and said: “Hey you! I think that this spoon will make a fantastic gift!”, and then he ran away. Here we are. Merry Christmas.”

I know that this might be a bit cheesy. But you want to provoke a few laughs, and I’ll guarantee you that, if you tell its story right, will be remembered for years. This is so much better than the 100$ shoes with absolutely no story.

It should be said that giving 100$ shoes with a good story is of course better than giving the spoon. But I think you get the point.

Good and bad presents:

No matter what, there will always be some things that you can give to everyone – and some things that you can’t!

Bad presents:

Fitness gear
Only all right if the person actually wanted it. If not – you might imply all the wrong things, and your perfect Christmas eve will end in a fight with a girlfriend or mom who thinks she’s fat.

Kitchen stuff
Getting a toaster is just boring.

Cooking gear
As with the above, you might imply all the wrong things if you give your girlfriend a cooking book.

Sexy underwear
Giving your girl some sexy lingerie for Christmas might sound like a great idea, but you won’t say that when you get your ass kicked by her dad afterwards. Giving lingerie is a great idea, just don’t do it in front of everybody.

Good presents:

Books
Hard to go really wrong here.

Socks
Pretty boring, but everyone needs socks.

Music
Use your knowledge about the person and buy a great cd for him / her. Remember the receipt, though, music is a pretty hard gift to give.

DVD’s
Give a season of Lost or similar. Lots of quality entertainment, and usually fairly cheap.

So as you can see, most “good” presents are fairly generic. You have to come up with one yourself, using what you have learned here, and your own good judgement.

So my tip to you is to use your imagination, and come up with a gift that they have never got before. Give them something they will remember, attach a story, and if it’s something they’re going to use, it’s only a plus.

19 thoughts on “How To Give The Perfect Christmas Present To Someone You Love”

our family always makes up poems to go with our gifts. Then they can be silly gifts and we laugh all Christmas. The poems are around the story of how or why we choose it. Nice post. BTW> I LOVE getting nice warm socks.

Love it Alex! Printing it off for my husband who soooooo doesn’t get it :) Maybe this year I’ll get something I can a) wear outside or b) doesn’t disappear into the kitchen cupboards never to be seen again!
S.

These are great ideas! My favorite thing for gift giving to that special someone, is to listen to what they say. My boyfriend and I go shopping every now and then and he’ll see things he likes, yet for whatever reason, won’t buy them. For the holiday, I’ll get them for him. Another example, is my bf just got into rock climbing (he was into bouldering beforehand) but has only done so at a gym . . . . I know him well enough to know that getting him a gift cert. to an outdoor rock climbing class would be really appreciated. (Speaking of which . . . I ought to do that now-ish . . .)

Of, course, if I really wanted to be girlfriend of his year I’d get flying lessons . . . but we haven’t been together long enough for that kind of $.

Sexy underwear is a terrible idea! Most women don’t want it, and don’t feel comfortable wearing it. Most women want to be loved for themselves, not because they parade around in stupid outfits for you. When you buy a woman sexy underwear, you’re buying yourself a present, you’re not buy her a present. Selfish…

CD’s are great if you know what the person wants. Me and my husband will be moving to his home country this year, so he bought me a CD full of songs sang in a dialect from my home district for those home sickness days. That was sweet, and it came with a self written poem too. :)

Sexy lingerie… I usually want to buy that myself. It certainly wouldn’t warm my heart on Christmas. Dangerous idea, but can work with 1% of women.

Socks… The only person allowed to get me socks for Christmas is my mother.

Lexi does what I do, go shopping with he person and listen to possible hints. I got mine in the nick of time this year. :D

I am allready looking for the right christmas present for my girlfriend this year. It isn’t really easy, as she has enough money to buy her the things she wants. So it really needs to be something special and original. Still searching. Any other good ideas?

Who is Alex Kay?

Hi, my name is Alex Kay. Welcome to Just Keep The Change – a blog focusing on making every man a better man. The focus of the blog is dating and relationships in a modern world context where man and technology is inseparable, our choice is greater than ever and the world is seemingly complex.

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About Just Keep The Change

Hi, my name is Alex Kay. Welcome to Just Keep The Change – a blog focusing on making every man a better man. The focus of the blog is dating and relationships in a modern world context where man and technology is inseparable, our choice is greater than ever and the world is seemingly complex.Continue reading